« In international recruitment, selecting an executive for an expatriate assignment in Africa, Europe, the Middle East or elsewhere is not simply about assessing technical skills, professional experience or seniority. A candidate may have an outstanding résumé and still encounter serious difficulties only a few months after relocating.
A failed expatriation can generate considerable human, managerial and financial costs for a company: premature departure, disengagement, disruption of local teams, a new recruitment process, additional international mobility costs and, in some cases, deterioration of relationships with local clients or partners.
For HR Directors, international recruitment firms and business leaders, the challenge is therefore to identify, during the recruitment process, the early warning signs that may indicate potential difficulties in adapting to a new professional and cultural environment.
Here are 10 warning signs that deserve particular attention. »
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A Primarily Financial Motivation
Compensation is naturally an important part of an expatriation package. An attractive package may include salary, housing, a company car, flights, children’s education, health insurance and other benefits related to international mobility.
The risk arises when financial considerations become virtually the candidate’s only motivation.
An executive who is more interested in housing, the company car or expatriation allowances than in the position itself, the country, the team they will manage and the company’s objectives may already be showing an initial sign of potential difficulty.
Expatriation is not only a professional experience. It is also a personal and cultural transition. When the first difficulties emerge, financial motivation alone is rarely enough to overcome culture shock.
| Assessment criterion | Weight | Risk rating |
| Professional motivation | 30% | ★★★★★ |
| Interest in the host country | 25% | ★★★★★ |
| Career objectives | 25% | ★★★★☆ |
| Salary-only motivation | 20% | ★★★★★ |
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An Idealised View of the Host Country
The second warning sign appears when a candidate has a perception of the destination that is far removed from everyday reality.
They may have discovered the country while on holiday, through personal relationships or during a few business trips. This does not necessarily mean they understand the realities of living and working there on a long-term basis.
Working in Casablanca, Abidjan, Dakar, Lagos, Nairobi or Johannesburg is very different from spending a few days there.
Expatriate recruitment should therefore assess how well candidates understand everyday realities: housing, transportation, administrative procedures, security, healthcare, children’s education, professional relationships and local management practices.
A candidate who immediately claims to “know Africa perfectly” because they have visited two or three countries should also invite further questioning. Africa encompasses extremely diverse economic, social and cultural environments.
| Level of knowledge | Weight | Risk |
| Professional experience in the country | 35% | ★☆☆☆☆ |
| Regular stays | 25% | ★★☆☆☆ |
| Tourist visits only | 20% | ★★★★☆ |
| No experience but strong assumptions | 20% | ★★★★★ |
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A Lack of Cultural Humility
This is probably one of the most important criteria when conducting an intercultural assessment of international executives.
Certain statements made during interviews should encourage recruiters to explore further: “I will teach them our methods”, “We are much more organised in Europe”, or “I will need to change the way they work.”
An expatriate is not sent abroad simply to reproduce the management model of their home country.
They first need to understand the existing organisation before attempting to transform it.
Cultural intelligence, listening skills, observation and cultural humility are therefore essential competencies for an expatriate manager.
| Behaviour | Weight | Importance |
| Listening skills | 30% | ★★★★★ |
| Cultural humility | 30% | ★★★★★ |
| Management adaptability | 25% | ★★★★★ |
| Ability to question one’s assumptions | 15% | ★★★★☆ |
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A Rigid Management Style
“I have always managed this way and it works.”
This statement can represent a genuine warning sign.
A management style that performs well in Paris, London, Brussels or Geneva will not necessarily produce the same results in Casablanca, Abidjan, Dakar, Douala or Nairobi.
Attitudes towards hierarchy, collective decision-making, conflict, time, communication and authority vary according to cultures, organisations and local contexts.
Intercultural management therefore requires executives to adapt their own practices.
An effective expatriate does not abandon standards or performance expectations. They adapt the way those expectations are communicated and implemented.
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A Family That Is Not Fully Committed to the Project
Recruitment traditionally focuses on the candidate. Yet, in a family expatriation, the spouse and children can play a decisive role in the success of the assignment.
The candidate may be enthusiastic while their partner accepts the relocation with far less conviction.
The issue becomes particularly important when the spouse has to give up a job, a career, family connections or an established social life to follow the expatriate.
Family difficulties can progressively affect the executive’s professional performance and willingness to remain in the host country.
| Family factor | Weight | Importance |
| Spouse’s commitment | 35% | ★★★★★ |
| Children’s education | 25% | ★★★★☆ |
| Spouse’s professional plans | 20% | ★★★★☆ |
| Living conditions | 20% | ★★★★☆ |
Expatriation management should therefore never consider the family dimension as a purely logistical issue.
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A Poor Reaction to the Unexpected
Expatriation frequently exposes executives to situations they cannot immediately control.
An administrative procedure may take longer than expected. A supplier may fail to respond. An employee may interpret an instruction differently. A meeting may be postponed. A decision may require more discussion than anticipated.
These situations often reveal two very different profiles.
The first seeks to understand the situation and find a solution. The second constantly compares everything with their home country: “This would never happen back home.”
Constant comparison can become one of the early indicators of culture shock during expatriation.
The ability to deal with uncertainty should therefore be assessed throughout the international recruitment process.
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An Excessive Need to Reproduce Their Previous Lifestyle
At the beginning of an expatriation, many executives experience an extremely positive period. Everything is new: the environment, responsibilities, encounters and discovery of the host country.
This period is sometimes referred to as the expatriation honeymoon phase.
Difficulties may appear later, particularly once the novelty begins to fade and the executive starts comparing their new life with the one they had before.
“In France, I used to…”
“In London, we had…”
“Back home, it was much easier…”
When these comparisons become constant, they can indicate growing integration difficulties.
A successful expatriate needs to be able to create a new normal rather than attempting to reproduce exactly the environment they left behind.
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8. Limited Interest in Local Teams
The questions candidates ask during recruitment interviews can be extremely revealing.
Are they only interested in their job title, expatriation package, housing and material conditions?
Or do they want to understand the composition of their team, existing competencies, employee seniority, company culture and the challenges facing the organisation?
A future country manager or subsidiary director who shows almost no curiosity about their future employees represents a potential risk.
The success of an expatriate manager in Africa largely depends on their ability to earn the trust and respect of local teams.
| Candidate’s questions | Weight | Positive indicator |
| Local teams and competencies | 30% | ★★★★★ |
| Company culture | 25% | ★★★★★ |
| Objectives and strategy | 25% | ★★★★★ |
| Expatriation package only | 20% | ★☆☆☆☆ |
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Using Expatriation as an Escape
Why do you want to move abroad?
This simple question can reveal a great deal.
Some candidates genuinely want to build an international career. Others are primarily seeking a break from their current circumstances: professional difficulties, frustration, personal problems, career stagnation or simply the desire to “start again somewhere else.”
Recruiters should naturally respect a candidate’s private life. However, they should also understand the professional coherence of the expatriation project.
Relocating abroad does not automatically resolve pre-existing difficulties.
A strong expatriation project should be supported by positive motivations: greater responsibilities, discovering a new market, developing a subsidiary, managing multicultural teams, career progression or acquiring new competencies.
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No Clear Plan for Life After Expatriation
The final warning sign is paradoxically one of the least frequently explored during recruitment: what does the candidate want to do after the expatriation?
An executive who relocates without considering the duration of the assignment, future career development or a possible return home may encounter difficulties several years later.
The company should also anticipate this issue.
An effective international mobility policy is not simply about sending an employee abroad. It should consider their integration, development and, where appropriate, eventual repatriation.
| Career planning criterion | Weight | Project strength |
| Clearly defined professional objectives | 30% | ★★★★★ |
| Expected duration of expatriation | 20% | ★★★★☆ |
| Skills to be developed | 25% | ★★★★★ |
| Post-expatriation planning | 25% | ★★★★☆ |
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A Global Expatriation Risk Assessment
None of these ten factors, taken individually, can predict the failure of an expatriation. It is the combination, accumulation and intensity of these warning signs that should attract the recruiter’s attention.
An assessment grid can help make the decision-making process more objective.
| Assessment criterion | Weight | Importance |
| Genuine motivation | 12% | ★★★★★ |
| Cultural humility | 15% | ★★★★★ |
| Adaptability | 15% | ★★★★★ |
| Management flexibility | 12% | ★★★★★ |
| Ability to deal with uncertainty | 10% | ★★★★☆ |
| Family commitment | 12% | ★★★★★ |
| Interest in local teams | 8% | ★★★★☆ |
| Knowledge of the host country | 5% | ★★★☆☆ |
| Career project consistency | 6% | ★★★★☆ |
| Medium-term career planning | 5% | ★★★☆☆ |
| Total | 100% |
This approach allows companies to move beyond a selection process based primarily on the candidate’s résumé and technical expertise.
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Detect Rather Than Repair
In expatriate executive recruitment, one of the most common mistakes is to consider cultural adaptation as an issue to be addressed only after the candidate arrives in the host country.
It should instead be assessed before recruitment is finalised.
Interviews can include practical scenarios involving conflict with a local team, cultural misunderstanding, resistance to change, administrative difficulties, disagreement with the European headquarters or the need to adapt a corporate decision to local realities.
The objective is not simply to determine what the candidate would do. Recruiters should also understand how the candidate thinks and reacts when faced with a situation whose cultural codes they do not fully understand.
This is precisely where the expertise of an international recruitment firm and a structured intercultural assessment become particularly valuable.
For Phénicia Conseil and Phéniciafrica, recruiting an executive for mobility between Europe and Africa therefore means going beyond matching a résumé with a job description. The challenge is also to assess the candidate’s ability to understand a new environment, adapt their management style and establish relationships of trust with culturally diverse teams.
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